In The Know

Blackburn, Baldwin to unveil Senate bill to put women’s suffrage monument on the National Mall

by Judy Kurtz 03/21/23 08:00 AM ET

Chairwoman Alice Paul, second from left, and officers of the National Woman's Party hold a banner with a Susan B. Anthony quote in front of the NWP headquarters in Washington, D.C., June 1920. The other suffragettes are, Sue White, Mrs. Benigna Green Kalb, Mrs. James Rector, Mary Dubrow and Elizabeth Kalb.

A bipartisan pair of female lawmakers is leading an effort in the Senate to bring a monument marking women’s suffrage to the National Mall.

Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) will introduce the Women’s Suffrage National Monument Location Act on Tuesday, ITK has exclusively learned.

The bill would secure a spot on the mall for a monument dedicated to women’s voting rights and the passage of the 19^th Amendment. A House version of the bill was introduced earlier this month.

In 2020, then-President Trump signed a bill authorizing an outdoor suffragist monument, but securing a location to install it on the National Mall requires an act of Congress.

Baldwin said in a statement that the legislation would “honor the suffragists and all those who fought for women’s right to vote with a monument in its rightful place, the National Mall.”

“The National Mall is home to memorials for those who fought for our freedom, presidents who defined our country, and the seat of our government, and it is only fitting that it also houses the Women’s Suffrage National Monument,” she said.

Even in hyper-polarized times, the push to create a structure memorializing women’s suffrage in Washington has garnered the backing of a bipartisan who’s who of ex-executive mansion residents. Jill Biden, along with every living former first lady — Melania Trump, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton and Rosalynn Carter — has signed on as honorary co-chair of the Women’s Suffrage National Monument Foundation.

Former Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who became the longest-serving woman in Congress before retiring in 2017 and is now a Women’s Suffrage National Monument Foundation ambassador, said in a statement, “There is something wonderfully American about the way my former colleagues in the Senate are uniting across the aisle to bring women’s history to the National Mall for the first time.”

“Without a monument to the great women of American history who paved the way for us to fully participate in and shape our democracy, the telling of the American story on our National Mall is not yet complete,” Mikulski said.